Empok Nor (episode)
Scavenging an abandoned Cardassian space station identical to DS9 for equipment, O'Brien's team discovers that the station may not be completely abandoned. Summary The episode begins in Quark's, which is strangely empty. We quickly understand the reason when hearing a horrible sound. It is actually Miles O'Brien and Nog doing some conduit repairs. However, the repairs are heavy and O'Brien soon realize he will need an entirely new plasma distribution manifold. Worse, they are of Cardassian making and cannot be replicated. It is then decided to go scavenge manifolds from the abandoned station of Empok Nor. Because of the Cardassian method of planting booby traps everywhere when they leave a place, a Cardassian expert joins the mission to play as the minesweeper: Elim Garak. The rest of the crew comprises O'Brien, Nog and four other starfleet crewmembers: Pechetti, Boq'ta, Stolzoff and Amaro. They soon arrive at Empok Nor. After Garak disarming the airlock booby trap and restoring emergency power to the station, O'Brien quickly dispatches his teams for the salvage operation. Nevertheless, tension slowly begin to build when we see that there were Cardassians left on the station who woke up from their stasis tubes with the emergency power restored. A little after, Garak and Boq'ta find the stasis tubes partly filled with an unknown blue substance. Regarding the discovery, Garak contacts the O'Brien team. After Nog witnesses the destruction of the runabout, they conclude that the former occupants of the cells are loose on the station with unfriendly intentions. When a dampening field hindering subspace communication is suddenly activated, they understand that their new priority is to contact DS9 for evacuation. It is decided to use the deflector grid to send a series of covariant pulses. For efficiency, they split again into three teams. The first team, composed of Stolzoff and Pechetti, has no luck and is easily disposed of by the veteran of the Cardassian First Order, Third Battalion. When O'Brien arrives on the death scene, he realizes they had the time to do a pretty complete job. The remaining members split again, even if everyone is beginning to feel clearly insecure. Garak is beginning to act strangely, insisting on going after the Cardassian and inviting the hero of Setlik III (O'Brien) to join his fight. Garak succeeds in disabling a Cardassian. After running an analysis on the body, he learns that the soldier had been given a massive dose of a psychotropic drug that looks as a failed experiment to develop a stimulant to Cardassians' xenophobic tendencies. He informs O'Brien of his discovery, but his strange behavior (probably from his contact with biogenic substance), causes O'Brien to observe that Garak doesn't have the face of a tailor anymore. The tailor goes on with his task, killing the second guard, but is unable to prevent the death of Boq'ta. Garak then finally loses control to the drug and stabs Amaro with a flux coupler. Insane, he turns his attention towards the only other remaining members of the salvage party: O'Brien and Nog. At this moment, O'Brien decides that securing the station is a greater priority than sending the signal. A cat-and-mouse game follows. Garak successfully captures Nog, and then uses him to bring O'Brien out of hiding. Garak arranges a hand-to-hand duel, as it will be more enjoyable for him to kill O'Brien slowly. Garak is partly blinded by the drug, and the Chief easily incapacitates him using a simple trap (a tricorder-phaser bomb). Later, in sickbay, Garak's system is purged of the drug. Garak expresses extreme regret for his actions and asks O'Brien to apologize on his behalf to Amaro's wife. O'Brien agrees, then says that there will have to be a hearing but O'Brien will make sure that the board knows Garak wasn't responsible for his actions. Memorable quotes "Welcome to Empok Nor." "Thanks for having us..." "Take whatever you need... my house is your house." : - Garak and O'Brien "He asked me to get a coil spanner for him, I just turned my back for a second." "Thats a shame. And the worst part of it is, this isn't a coil spanner" (Stabs Amaro) "It's a flux coupler" : - Amaro and Garak "You look different. That's not the face of a tailor." "I'm not a tailor. Not for the moment anyway." : - O'Brien and Garak Background Information * Empok Nor marked the first appearance of an environmental suit in a Star Trek episode since , though environmental suits of various designs had been seen in the Star Trek films. The type of suit worn by Garak in this episode was designed for , and made several later appearances in Star Trek: Voyager. In addition, the new Type 3 phaser rifle, also designed for Star Trek: First Contact, made its first appearance on Deep Space Nine in this episode. * The events of this episode were referenced by Nog in the DS9 Season 6 episodes and . Empok Nor itself appeared in the latter episode, as well as in Season 7's . Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 5.12, . *As part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek - Greatest Battles: . *As part of the DS9 Season 5 DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars *Andrew J. Robinson as Elim Garak *Aron Eisenberg as Nog *Tom Hodges as Pechetti *Andy Milder as Boq'ta *Marjean Holden as Stolzoff *Jeffrey King as Amaro Uncredited Co-Stars *Christopher Doyle as a Cardassian soldier *Tom Morga as a Cardassian soldier References Barrica encampment; beta-matrix compositor; bypass displacer; Cardassian vole; Cardie; coil spanner; covariant pulse; dampening field; Empok Nor; EPS matrix converter; First Order; flux coupler; hyper spanner; inquest; Klingon restaurant; kotra; microfusion reactor; optronic coupler; pattern scrambler; phase decompiler; phase discriminator; plasma distribution manifold; plasma recoiler; polarity maximizer; psychotropic drug; root beer; Setlik III; stasis tube; Til'amin froth; Trivas system. |next= }} Category:DS9 episodes cs:Empok Nor (epizoda) de:Empok Nor (Episode) nl:Empok Nor (aflevering)